


Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

by Dnylovee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Failed Rebellion, Les Misérables AU, Sad, big nomin if uve read the book, lowkey nomin if you squint, mark as survivors guilt, they are the les amis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:14:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23442274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dnylovee/pseuds/Dnylovee
Summary: “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, Where my friends will sing no more”Mark Lee is the only survivor in the failed June rebellion that killed his friends
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

“There's _a grief that can't be spoken, There's a pain goes on and on.”_

In the middle of a sea of broken glass and overturned furniture sits a man who should be dead. Mark Lee should be among the line of young men laying side by side on the cobblestone street. Their body’s exposed to the passing public as a warning, their young faces dirty and their clothes torn.

_“Empty chairs at empty tables,_  
_Now my friends are dead and gone.”_

“Did you hear that it was all over in less than five minutes”  
“Do you think they had ever held a gun?”  
“I heard that some begged for mercy”  
The whispers of rumor surrounded Mark as he walked the lonely street that morning, a morning he should not have seen.

_“Here they talked of revolution,_  
_Here it was they lit the flame,”_

When Mark closed his eyes he could see Jeno standing on the table, red flag in hand, proclaiming that France would once again be free, only opening his eyes to see that the room was still empty, the flag hanging out the open window, the red now matching the bloodstained stones that made up the street.

_“Here they sang about tomorrow and tomorrow never came. From the table in the corner,They could see a world reborn,And they rose with voices ringing,”_

He looked to where Renjun, Donghyuck and him had not only shared laughter but the dream of a better future. Only Renjun and Donghyuck would never see that future. The space now empty, the chairs and table thrown out the window, piled onto the barricade that would become their place of death. The future that was also robbed from Jaemin, Chenle, Jisung and Yangyang.

 _“And I can hear them now_  
_The very words that they have sung_  
_Became their last communion_ ”

No more would this room be filled with the drunken ramblings of Jaemin, the playful arguments and reminiscing of home by Chenle and Yangyang, and the hopefulness of the young Jisung had been stripped from the atmosphere. Jisung was only a child and Mark wasn’t, why should a child have been more heroic than him? Jisung shouldn’t be laying in the line of dead men with a large red stain on this chest.

_“On this lonely barricade, at dawn.”_

Mark wished he could be in that line. At least he would with his friends and not left to feel their absence. He wishes that he wouldn’t have been saved and died on the cobblestone streets.

_“Oh my friends, my friends forgive me_  
_That I live and you are gone“_

Mark remembers the reality that they would not win this battle setting in on the group of friends. Them all agreeing that they would die in the fight for freedom, a promise that mark couldn’t keep.

_“There's a grief that can't be spoken,_  
_And there's a pain goes on and on“_

Mark remembers seeing that lifeless body’s of his friends fall over the barricade, their rifles still gripped in their hands, the life going out of their eyes. He remembers seeing them break down the door and try to hide in the cafe. He remembers the look of fear on their faces, even the brave Jeno looked like a scared child, at one point dragging a crying Chenle on his waist. The citizens they were fighting for merely closed their windows to their crying and turned away. 

_“Phantom faces at the window,_  
_Phantom shadows on the floor,”_

He remembers hearing Jaemin cry “Vive La France” before the sound of two gunshots silenced the street. He cries remembering that Jaemin was a skeptic and had no interest in the revolution, only going along in support of his friends. Jaemin always ignoring that looks of disapprove sent by Jeno when he made a joke to lighten the mood of his friends. His friends that he now lays beside in death. The bright smile he wore so proud would never spread across his face and the laugh that often followed a slight jab at Mark would only live in Marks memory. 

_“Empty chairs at empty tables where my friends will meet no more.”_

No more will his friends see the sunrise, the sunset, the good, the evil. No more will they laugh, no more will they cry, no more will they tease, no more will they dream. Their flames of life now gone and never to return.

“Oh my friends, my friends don't ask me  
What your sacrifice was for“

Mark cries out of anger at his friends, he is upset that as they will be in the ground, forever young, he will live in a world that will not change. He will live in a world that will shake their heads at the the young men. The young men who wanted to see the world a better place.

 _“Empty chairs at empty tables_  
_Where my friend will sing no more_.”

**Author's Note:**

> This kinda bad sorry


End file.
